The Fall of Bangor (Part 3)

Posted on Mon Feb 12th, 2024 @ 11:49pm by Hale Stratton [Major, United States Army] & Alonzo Blazevic & Calista Sutton & Vienna Quinn & Killian Sutton & René Rouen & Reuben Baptiste & Victoire Olaffson [Lieutenant, United States Navy]

2,108 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Bangor or Bust
Location: Stratton/Blazevic/Thompson Quarters, Safe Zone, Bangor, Maine
Timeline: 4 September 2010 - 06:00 p.m.

"Always the challenge," Hale murmured, his gaze narrowing. Deliberately, he turned his attention back to Vienna since her question was phrased reasonably at least. "Sooner the better, I'm afraid."

Vienna nodded, she could hear her mother’s most likely words in her head now telling her to go, to be safe.

From her, his gaze landed on Rene. The accusation hung in the air between them and then he moved onto Vic and Reuben. "You both know as well as I do what's at stake. I invited you here in the hopes of securing your help in orchestrating some delaying tactics. Divert the herd. Maybe slow it down a bit. Give the larger groups a chance to get away."

"Look, none of this is easy. Rather than cooperate, people are stealing whatever they can in the way of supplies and weapons and just … going. They don't understand the dangers and they don't trust anyone but themselves. So, they're leaving and dragging their families along with them."

"Those that are left are being broken down into more manageable groups. Hard reality is that right now, nowhere is safe. The convoys are heading to places that Danforth thinks are likely to have resources and places that can be secured. Those that will cooperate anyways."

Vienna looked at René, “My mum won’t go with us, you know she won’t! She’ll stay with the medical convoys.” She sighed as she considered what to do, before looking back at René. “I’ll go wherever you go.”

René was a bit surprised by Vienna’s statement. He couldn't speak for a moment before he finally shook his head. "Finding your mere (mother) alive was providence. I can't be the reason you are separated from her again." He turned to Victoire. "You're a doctor, you could convince Mrs. Quinn to join us. It isn't like you don't need a nurse to assist you anyway."

“My mum isn’t that easy to convince!” Vienna looked between René and Victoire. “Don’t you think I want her to come? I don’t want to lose her again, but I know what she’ll say!”

"Invite her over then," Hale said. "Or tell me where she is and I'll go get her. I think you both need to understand the reality because the odds are that if you separate now, you may never see each other again in this life."

Vienna nodded, looking to René she headed to go and get her mother but wasn’t met with good news as one of the hospital staff caught her up.

“I’m sorry Miss, but your mother has gone to take a patient to safety. She said to tell you she’d be back as soon as she can get.” The Nurse offered an apologetic glance. “Oh … before I forget, She asked for this letter to be passed on to you.” She passed her an unopened envelope.

~ A few minutes later ~

Knocking on the door Vienna stood outside Hale’s words ringing in her ears, would she ever see her mother again? She would look at her mother’s letter later, right now she just wanted to be with René.

Once again, Hale got to his feet and went to the door; he looked beyond her to the lack of parental presence and cocked his head slightly to one side. "What happened," he asked as he gestured her inside. "Where is she?"

Vienna gave Hale an unhappy look as she entered. “She’s gone to accompany a patient, or so they told me. She’s hoping to come back, but she also left this..” she held up the unopened letter before putting it in her pocket. “She’s not going to get back, is she?”

"We'll go get her," Hale said. "Vic, Reuben, how about a little exercise before dinner?" He turned back to Vienna. "What does the letter say?"

"Well; I suppose I got a new uniform for a reason... though I think I may not need it for too much longer the way things look." Vic chuckled darkly before looking at Vienna with a smile and then over to Hale. “There should still be an assignment sheet for the Doctors and Nurses located in the hospital, likely in the nurses station.” She glanced to Vienna and smiled reassuringly “From there it shouldn't be terribly difficult to locate her... René makes a good point, having a proper nurse along with us would make it much easier to treat people and it would enable us to set up a real base of operations somewhere eventually as well."

Vienna smiled at how much everyone was trying to keep her united with her mother. “I don’t know what the letter says, I haven’t opened it yet.” She was almost too nervous to. “I can hazard a guess that it’s most likely a goodbye note, hence why I haven’t read it yet.”

Reuben instantly reached into his pocket and pulled out his glasses. He took his eyepatch off and put the eyeglasses on, sliding both case and eyepatch back into his pocket. He tightened the eyeglass cord on his eyeglasses. “I am game, anyone have a spare pistol or rifle? If not allow me to get my survival axe.”

It was then that Vic thought of something swinging her head to look around. "There is someone else we are going to be taking with us; she is back at my house currently... someone that came in and that I promised I would ensure was safe."

"Well sounds like we are going to have a grand party." said Reuben.

René glanced at Vienna before looking at the adults. "Should Vienna and I join you?" His gaze shifted to Vic. "Or would you like us to go keep your house guest company?"

She thought for a moment. “I doubt that we will need more than the three of us since we should all have clearance for anywhere on the station and my guest might appreciate company; do either of you know ASL?”

“Sign Language?” Vienna shook her head. “My mum does but I haven’t had chance to learn yet.” She looked towards René.

René shook his head. "I don't know sign language either."

Vic chuckled a bit, smiling. “That is quite alright; I’ll walk with you and give you a quick rundown of the basics of it” She looked to Hale “I will join you guys at the Hospital after that”

René was a bit relieved to know that Vic was going to make the introductions. He had not felt comfortable going to her lodging until announced to look after someone he wouldn't be able to communicate with. "I'll wait out on the porch."

Reuben took that as his cue. "I am going to go retrieve my survival axe. Be right back." With that statement he got up and lead Kenny to the door.

Vienna joined René out on the porch. “We could be lucky, if this guest knows how to lip read then we’ll be able to communicate alright.

[Mother-in-Law apartment]

Reuben made his way to the mother-in-law apartment where he was staying. He was careful to undo the string he strung on the third step up, and near the last he made sure he and Kenny avoided the last step which he rigged to snap should weight be put on it. He unlocked the door and quickly entered to get his survival axe.

[Somewhere in the woods]

They had been on their own for a couple of days, ever since the Airport had turned into the high school gym. They had lost more things in the shuffle, their keys to their car had been stolen the first night. The security personnel had done nothing about it, and no one seemed to have been missing that they had been around.

When they had gotten free from the mess, they went to find their car had been truly stolen. It left them without much of anything. Fuel convoys hadn't been around since everyone was supposed to be isolating and staying with the groups.

It took everything that Calista had with Killian to just get out of the airport. Instead of taking the buses that they had brought in to go to Bangor, they decided to make it off on their own. They were now on day two of hiking south from Millinocket. There weren't that many people about, plenty of the now turned creatures that kept them on their toes.

"When do you think we'll want to make contact with the freeway?" Calista asked, as they continued their hike through the woods in parallel to the freeway.

Killian looked over to his wife. Staying in the trees was what they needed to do right now with the creatures that were making their way through the woods, most shambling away from the freeway. The trees gave them cover. "I planned on us hitting it just south of Bangor. That'd allow us to see what the more major cities are dealing with and that Millinocket was just a one off."

"You don't really think that Millinocket was a one off though," Cal replied.

"No," Killian said as he took a deep breath. "I really don't. I figure that as much as we could take the trail back, it might be easier to get on the road and find a workable car that we might be able to borrow to try to get home."

Calista sighed. "I hope so," she commented.

[Meanwhile, Back at the House]

"Hopefully, this won't take long," Hale said to Alonzo. "The way things are going right now, nowhere outside of the zone is particularly safe. Between the thieves and the 'not-dead-enough'? She could be in real trouble."

"They are definitely not dead enough" Alonzo replied. "I understand that it isn't safe out there. She very well could be in real trouble" admitted Alonzo. "Was all of this really a smart idea."

"What do you mean," Hale asked as he moved closer. "Dinner or coming to Bangor at all?"

He had to think on that one. "Not us," Alonzo said quickly to assure Hale that he was not thinking about them when he said that. "We had to give Bangor a chance. I think what I mean was welcoming these people in or back in."

Hale nodded, inwardly relieved that Alonzo wasn't having second thoughts, and took a moment to think about that. "I think for now," he said at last, "we have to at the very least help them get out of Bangor. After that, well, we can decide." He reached up to draw a line along Alonzo's jaw. "But my priority is you and Ethan. If you say go, as in go our own way, I'll be right there with you."

"This is difficult for me because I want to help them" stated Alonzo. "I've always been someone to care about other, to help them. I just don't want to put you or Ethan in jeopardy, and I haven't entirely forgiven René for the Walmart situation."

"Hmm," Hale said in a voice that was halfway between a growl and a purr. "Understood and something we'll need to figure out if this extends farther than getting out of the city. But for now, you two stay safe here and if it all goes to hell, remember what we agreed."

Alonzo stepped closer and placed his hand on Hale's chest. "Just be safe. Don't take any unnecessary risks. I need you."

"Kinda' working against training there," Hale said, with a slight grin, "but I'll do everything I can to come back. Fair enough?"

Alonzo looked Hale in the eyes. "For now," he said in a hushed tone. "You have always been the good soldier, the good officer. I know you have training, the uniform... all of that."

"That's true," Hale said quietly. He met Alonzo's gaze and held it, his expression softening as he did so. "But here lately, I've started to think that maybe I want to be something more than an operator."

Alonzo took a deep breath. It was always nice to see Hale exceed his programming. At least that's how Alonzo saw it. "You have always been more than just an operator. You just need to be reminded of that sometimes, Hale."

"Deprogrammed," Hale asked, one corner of his mouth kicking upward to form a wry smile. He pulled Alonzo into an embrace and then stepped back, breathing deeply as he did so. "I'll be okay. I got a lot to come home to."

 

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